Where to Drink in East Village, New York City

“The East Village is a drinking neighborhood,” says Rafa García Febles, general manager of Kabawa and Bar Kabawa, a Caribbean fine-dining restaurant and bar that opened in March 2025. “There can be serious craft and a high level of execution, but this is a nightlife town, and we’re here to have a good time.” While its exact parameters depend on which highly opinionated New Yorker you ask, the downtown area falls roughly between 14th and Houston Streets and is flanked by 4th Avenue and Avenue A.

Its flourishing cocktail scene has deep roots: In the early aughts, PDT, Death & Co, and other groundbreaking establishments that drove the global cocktail renaissance originated in the East Village. Twenty years later, the neighborhood has “amazing” cocktail bars “with centrifuges and liquid nitrogen,” García Febles says, as well as generations-old dives, pizzerias with destination wine lists, underground sake spots, and beyond. With excellent drinks, cutting-edge style, and unmistakable New York energy, the East Village remains utterly of-the-moment.

Amor y Amargo

“You’re not going to find a bar like this anywhere else,” Garcia Febles says of this slim destination just off of Avenue A. Considered a trailblazer by many in the city’s cocktail scene, Amor y Amargo opened in 2011 with no juices or mixers on its menu. Instead, beverage director Sother Teague and CEO Ravi deRossi focused entirely on bitters and amari. Their laser focus paid off—and continues to influence menus and palates in and beyond the city. “What they’re doing is so distinct, and it hasn’t been and probably can’t be replicated,” Garcia Febles adds.

Bar Kabawa

This snug and spirited Daiquiri and wine bar is next door to Kabawa, a critically lauded Caribbean restaurant from chef Paul Carmichael. “The organizing principle is, does this feel like home, like being on the islands,” says García Febles. “One of our great cultural exports from the Caribbean is our parties.” Tropical cocktails include the Gwayav (rum, guava, and falernum); Kafé Wonm (rum, coffee, orange, and vanilla); and six Daiquiris, including a classic version and a Jerk Daiquiri made with allspice and kicky habanero. The expansive wine cellar was inherited from the restaurant group’s now-shuttered Momofuku Ko, which previously occupied the Kabawa space, and skews toward natural and minimal intervention bottles. The menu features shareable snacks like oysters with pineapple mignonette and an array of impossibly flaky patties stuffed with curry crab and squash, and geera goat.

Bar Snack

Opened in late 2024 by Iain Griffiths (The Lyan Group, Trash Tiki) and Brooklyn bar owner Oliver Cleary (Minnows), this high-spirited bar is essentially “an industry party,” García Febles says. Local bartending legends and hospitality professionals rub elbows with carousing twentysomethings and longtime neighborhood residents in the lively space. When they’re not taking mirror selfies beneath the disco ball in the dance-party-ready bathroom, guests sip expertly made drinks like the Hay Trip (a tequila-based strawberry amaro sour), Salad Negroni (a riff on the original with nectarine and basil notes), and seasonal Daiquiris available in three sizes. The kitchen is open until midnight seven days a week and serves fried cheese curds with pickle dust, sourdough slices topped with green goddess bean dip, and the Snack Dog, a pork-and-beef hot dog with onion jam, pickle, Duke’s mayo, and kettle chips.

Death & Co.

A groundbreaking bar-turned-global institution, Death & Co. opened in 2007 and remains one of the city’s must-visit stops for casual cocktail fans and all-out aficionados. “A lot of the drinks and trends that we take for granted these days, like mezcal as a mixing spirit, all came from them,” says Garcia Febles, who refers to Death & Co’s opening team as “this all-star, ‘96 Bulls collection of cocktail people.” The bar has since opened glittering locations in Denver, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

Decibel

New York bars tend to have short shelf lives, but this underground sake bar has been serving Japanese spirits and snacks since 1993. “It’s such a cool vibe,” says García Febles. “The drinks are serious but it’s also a party bar.” To find it, look for the scarlet “On Air” sign above a staircase on another wise unremarkable stretch of sidewalk. In the intimate space, revelers tip back shochu shots and pitchers of Lychee Martinis, sake devotees sip rare imports, people on dates clink Suntory highballs while nibbling octopus salad and shrimp shumai, and seasoned locals and newly of-age college students all stop in for $6 Sapporos and $9 umeshu sodas during daily 6-7 p.m. happy hours. The subterranean space manages to feel cool and cozy, with shelves of bottles and graffiti-covered walls and tables.

Holiday Cocktail Lounge

One of the oldest bars in the East Village at nearly 100, this formerly grimy dive is rumored to have served Frank Sinatra, Allen Ginsberg, Joey Ramone, and more in its hard-living previous life. Revamped in 2015, the bar has comfortable banquettes and sconces in lieu of darkly lit, duct-taped booths, but the twinkling string lights and gritty charm remain. “This is where your bartender goes at the end of their nights,” says García Febles. “It has a pirate spirit.” The list of expertly made cocktails includes the Gold Rush, Singapore Sling, Blue Hawaiian, and other fun-loving classics; plus house creations like the Night Bloom (mezcal, hibiscus, aloe, and pineapple), craft beers and gently priced wine, and spirit-free drinks.

Ops

An offshoot of a beloved pizza and natural wine restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn, this airy spot serves Italian-accented fare alongside “a really fun, interesting, and well-priced wine list,” García Febles says. Most bottles are natural or biodynamic and cost less than $100—a bargain by Manhattan standards—and there area few investment-worthy selections from cult producers like Radikon and Salima et Alain Cordeuil. In addition to its traditional and inventive wood-fired pizzas, Ops’ menu has chicory salads, crispy fritters stuffed with pollock and shrimp, and suppli, or mozzarella-stuffed fried tomato rice balls. “You can get a drink and a snack or sit down for an entire meal,” García Febles says. Occasionally, the kitchen features specialty pies created in collaboration with other East Village institutions like Momofuku Noodle Bar and Carnitas Ramirez.

Paradise Lost

This atmospheric rum-focused cocktail bar and Imbibe 75 alum celebrates “the canon of tiki drinks,” says García Febles, “but it removes everything that’s problematic about that and replaces it with heavy metal darkness. I love what they do.” In addition to tropical classics like Mai Tais and Daiquiris, the rotating drinks list features house creations such as Beelz’s Road Soda (Bajan andJamaican rums, coconut, pineapple, and pandan) and the Riptide Martini (wasabi pea–infused aquavit, seaweed-infused gin, dry and blanc vermouths, green Chartreuse, and coconut water). Snacks and larger bites include a burnt kimchi grilled cheese, chicken wings with charred citrus and pineapple, and tater tots with black garlic rum caramel.

PDT

In the early days of New York City’s craft cocktail revolution, some trendsetting bars felt hushed and serious, but PDT “was always about having a speakeasy where the point is to have fun,” says Garcia Febles. Its location within a St. Mark’s hot dog joint helped, as did the exceedingly warm hospitality that greeted you once you made it into the chicly decorated space. It’s been nearly 20 years since the bar debuted in 2007, and it’s still a point of reference in and beyond the bar industry. “PDT drove people to the neighborhood, and it drove cocktail culture locally and nationally,” Garcia Febles adds. “It’s one of those places that produced a whole generation of people who would influence cocktails all around the world.”

Superbueno

This Mexican American cocktail bar debuted in a busy corner lot in 2023 and promptly became one of the city’s most beloved destinations for inventive and expertly made drinks plus nonstop festivity courtesy of gregarious co-owner Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez and his team. Drinks like the Green Mango Martini, Roasted Corn Sour, and Vodka y Soda—an anything-but-basic combination of vodka, guava, and pasilla— already feel like modern classics. The kitchen turns out light bites including yellowfin tuna tiraditos and chips with mushroom-salted guacamole, as well as more substantial fare, such as al pastor tacos and an unforgettable birria grilled cheese with cilantro lime mayo.